Engineering Solution

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Mighty Jacksparrow is an Earth-based sub-intergalactic blogger who enjoys writing and in the same time entertaining his ever-amusing will-kill-to-read fans with sensationally hilarious and at times dramatic musings. This blog offers endless ideas and results; they might be charming most of the times but could be offending in some others. Therefore, it is always noble to remind that if you enjoy the pieces, carry on reading, but if they upset you, do quietly leave like the evening breeze and not like exploding diarrhea, which exactly what you will look like if you ever lose it on me. Enjoy! :D

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Since few days back, my Twitter timeline was flooded (at various intensity) with the hash-tag #soMalaysian.

The hash-tag #soMalaysian is a specific hash-tag used by Malaysian tweeters to point out their views on what makes Malaysian Malaysian. This hash-tag has been used by a large number of Twitter users, and the number of tweets on it has steeply increased since it was first introduced. The cause behind it could be because people wanted to make it into the first ten worldwide trending - not a case we have not achieved, last were #tanyanajib and #khairulfahmi previously.

At first, I thought, this could be a good move by us Malaysian tweeters. By making #soMalaysian a worldwide trending for another one hammer time, I was quite excited actually. Imagine, just how the world will again acknowledge us Malaysian on Twitter, this time about us particularly and about the people, the cultures and the multiracial stands we have today in this beloved nation. Now is that not great? In a way, we could be helping the foreigners to have a greater perspective on us, and might trigger their curiosity at an even alarming rate right sufficient enough to draw them all here visiting the country.

As much as I anticipated on the outcomes of #soMalaysian, I was in the end very much disappointed.

#SoMalaysian hash-tag is nothing but mostly a very discouraging (though in some eyes are 'entertaining, funny and unexceptionally hilarious') group of tweets of just how ugly Malaysians are. All the dirty secrets came out since the previous few days for the whole world to view. Interesting enough, some of them were even re-tweeted multiple times.

As much as I too agreed on the facts that carried #SoMalaysian hash-tag, they are not the kinds of things that can possibly represent all Malaysians. Some of them were only practiced by ethnicity. Some of them even only occur in rural areas. And do we take these smallest of localized occurrences to represent us Malaysian? We did. #SoMalaysian appears to expose to the world just how ugly we are.

I am no doubt a Malaysian.

But when I looked at the trending of #soMalaysian, I was like, "holy shit, what is this stuff?!" There were a lot of ugly things that happened to the not-so-majority group of people but were tagged as #SoMalaysian. What the FUCK are you talking about? When did I buy bikes for my kids just so that they can race on tarmacs? And that thing on flushing toilets, when did I ever forget to? And miss-calling others for the fun of it?

Seriously, what is this stuff?

Do we nurture these kids with our #soMalaysian?

When neighboring countries poked on our faces some times back, we were awfully at rage over the matter. We completely denied their accusations and insults that we were no good, that we were useless piece of shits. Today we look at our own Malaysian, proudly presenting #SoMalaysian hash-tag into world wide webs, just as humiliating as how we were humiliated by previously foreign nations.

The hash-tag should have not been #soMalaysian. It should have been #BadMalaysian or something. Anyway I was wondering too, of all those bad things getting tweeted by Malaysian themselves on #soMalaysian, were they aware that they were, in a way, speaking of themselves? Well aren't these tweeters Malaysian?

I feel embarrassed, sorry and sad.

If you don't believe me, go ahead and click #soMalaysian now and look for yourself, and then ask yourself once and for all, are you Malaysians of those kinds, provided that #soMalaysian should have represented yourselves and others of the same kinds?

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Yesterday when I was having fun Twittering and Facebook-ing, some very strange things happened. There were this 'crick-crick-crick' sound came from the back of my CPU. First I thought it was the issue of the power supply unit where the connection of the cable was not secured. So I went and looked at the back of the CPU.

Suddenly, an explosion happened. Blue sparks came out from the back of the CPU followed with some whitish smoke.

Some things are best to explode massively.

I freaked out and almost shat in my pants. But due to the fact that I have went to the toilet earlier to empty my mobile organic sewage tank just enough to give ways for the remaining solid waste to accumulate for the next routine tank-clearing session. So instead I changed color and rolled myself into a ball like an armadillo does (I wanted to bury my head in earth but my floor is made from concrete and to dig a hole up is just too tiring and time-consuming) for some time.

When I cooled down, I decided to open up the power supply unit (PSU) where I suspected the smoke came from. I didn't care about the guarantee because it expired ONE day before this happened. What luck.

Completely naked, baby.

Above is the view of the power supply unit. Everything looked fine until I took a finer look at it.

Kick ass large capacitors. They zap.

Above are the capacitors meant to regulate the electric output supply to the computer, assuring regulated and tuned power. As you see, there is a brownish smear on the circuit board. Hm, this could be the main reason the PSU went boom. But why?

Something had clearly messed these twin up.

I kept looking at the failed area of the circuit board until I finally decided to look what was hidden beneath it. The reasons why circuit board fails are generally failing electronic equipments or power surge and short circuit event.

WTF %@$#

And then when I opened up and lifted the board up, I CURSED frantically.

Electrically-roasted reptile for tonight's dinner. Take it while it's HOT.

This was a closeup of the little bastard who claimed the lives of my PSU and then itself. The fella was literally fried very well from 500W worth of power.

That doesn't look so nice, does it?

Above is the view of the base of the PSU where the electric sparks took place. I just can't imagine just how the lizard died, but I am very sure it was very fast and shocking.

Due to this very unfortunate event, I have to buy myself a new PSU and is showed in the picture below. The computer now is up and running again, and I am now back online.

As a social animal, human prone to be surrounded by many others of the same kind who give and receive attentions to each other to fulfill the requirement as social pacts. The interactions in between the species varies in terms of intensity, method and other compounding variables that more or less shape the way communications are performed in between two or more of these very intelligent primates. However, more often than not we miss to notice that despite human being the only social beings that are able to vastly communicate, there are some who at times brought uneasiness in communication processes that take place at every second of the day.

Also known as spoilers, these type of people most commonly contribute in sparking negative emotions in the members of which certain types of communication that include them. These are the mostly ill-mannered, rough, proud, often making noises to attract easy attentions, and as one may already ponder about, poorly educated, in a sense of social ethics.

My suggestion is to avoid these types of spoilers best when you spot them. There shall be no need for conflicts, though in every circumstances the chance for conflicts to occur is pretty high, for conflicts are for those who are not quite conscious of what specifically happen to them. Amidst the rule for engagement should one day a conflict might brew with these kind of fouling fodders, it is best to withdraw the swords, for these kinds of blindfolded fighters fight more like a thousand baboons at rage - full of energy but is channeled to non-specific targets, only aiming at mass destructions but missing most of the intended targets.

In the army, these people are not suitable to handle a machine gun or any gunnery equipment for safety reason; these trigger-happy people may not only be emptying the barrel in less than a minute without even hitting a target but instead sending the whole battalion into chaos for aiming and sending out friendly fires. Having them to work in a nuclear power plant will be the worst mistake ever done in the whole history of mankind, second to having them in this world in the first place.

Intolerable, arrogant, mindless and superbly and terrifyingly irritating and annoying bunch of fellas. An undeveloped potato can win them over by 50 points when it comes to IQ test. It was once rumored that even a tiny little pebble can outsmart them in a tic-tac-toe game, and a helpless electric guitar to trash them by minutes in a 100 meter sprint.

To quarrel with an immature, proud and loud person is like to drain a moving river with a pail, one full bucket at a time - it never ends, and only end up embarrassingly. Much as I express my sadness for having accidentally bumped into them and tried my best to assist, only to in the end get not only humiliated but charged with very despicable replies (though this was fairly expected mainly from early justifications made on their choice of words when speaking - very very ill-mannered), I have somehow grown into not to give any affordable attention to them anymore, for my time is best spent to those who are worth it.

To name one, a few days back I was assisting, or rather trying to, an undergraduate student from a local university (not UTP) over some questions he needed help with via social media. He made countless mistakes in deriving the questions (it was a Bernoulli's and a few thermal-energy related issues), and in the same time stood rigidly from being corrected, and instead of, accused me for bluffing him off and advised me to study on thermal energy before speaking to him again.

I have been in thermal energy field for almost four years you stupid sonofabitch.

Therefore, avoid them at all cost. Always remember to remain at your class, for succumbing into theirs shows that you are of no class at all. When challenged or criticized by this time of people, simply nod off and allow them to proceed with their subjects - pride and self-claimed fame - and carry on with what we were with previously. It saves times generally, and prevents humiliations, primarily. There is no way to change these people no more, for they are already way too damaged that if ever to be repaired will not only cause another waves of damages but also wasting a lot of treasured times. Just give them what they want, they'll walk away. Just like what I did to the student mentioned previously.

Because nothing makes my day better than to know that he is making God-knows-how-much errors each god damn day throughout his entire life.

Though some pointed out that by initiating a debate in between the two great minds, the people may become instantly educated and therefore be able to choose wisely in between the two, I beg to think the otherwise.

A debate, first and foremost, is "a formal method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion. Though logical consistency, factual accuracy and some degree of emotional appeal to the audience are important elements of the art of persuasion, in debating, one side often prevails over the other side by presenting a superior "context" and/or framework of the issue, which is far more subtle and strategic" (source: Wikipedia).

Mind the word mentioned up there: persuasion. Debate is an art of convincing by means of superiority. The point is to make the opponent to shut the hell up. This technique, though quite hard to master, can be very beneficial in winning arguments. As long as one is able to condemn the opponent to an end of silence, then he shall be announced as the superior winner. But just how accurate that the arguments can be?

Provided that DS Anwar Ibrahim is already a bewildered speaker, his talent mostly revolves around his words. He has the advantage of advancing his moves by mobilizing his entire speech. DS Najib Razak on the other hand is not quite a speaker. This difference in debating ability in both sides has already determined the ending outcomes. And if I were Najib too, I would have done the same.

Take me for example, I am quite an established writer. I have wide range of vocabulary and tactical ways of writing. With this talent I am able to do many things; all of them mainly depending of what my intentions are at the time. Therefore, if I ever to challenge a person in a writing contest, and provided that I have adequate knowledge that the person I am challenging has moderate, if not poor, ability in writing, I would have done it, just because I can already predict the outcomes of the rivalry contest. This situation can be clearly visualized in the effort shown by Anwar by challenging Najib into a duel, which he convincingly knows that Najib would have completely declined, hence his winning prizes were granted once Najib did.

And therefore Anwar can gain more supporters: a solid move to collect back all the supporting losses previously, especially for the incoming general election.

The unknowing minds will portray that Najib happens to be a coward and that Anwar is at the right side. It is commonly typical, given that mostly the Malaysian ways of thinking are partially to completely funny. Malaysian loves provocation very much for still unknowing reasons; a trait that generally consumes the bearer once he or she is challenged into a similar kind of duel.

Because some Malaysians are just like that: they love conflicts that occur between any interesting parties, be it in politic or socially-derived events, but chicken out when they themselves become the involving parties. Furthermore, it is not very hard to convince a large group of poorly-informed people, especially those who are poorly educated, ignorants, and not able to get their hands to informations. This too depends on how the convincer acts upon them, be it with provocations, facts and some other methods.

Therefore too, I think that the debate will not only project into a catastrophic ending but as well missing the real pictures in local political scenes and whatnots. It will be more productive if both parties can come out with factual statistics and data rather than debating on stuffs that perhaps will take years to debate on. That way not only real facts (better be certified facts before each party asks about its originality), not only statistical and analytical review can be done perfectly but also justifications can be done independently and realistically.

The only guy with the coolest reaction.

Who would you have trusted; the cooking oil price you see on the shelf at Tesco for yourself, or the price of cooking oil overheard from a heated argument in between two strangers you bumped into on the way there?

Despite the recently announced Economic Transformational Project (ETP) by the Prime Minister to further develop the nation into a high-income country from the current mid-income one, numbing questions started to surface on how specifically the success of ETP may be reached mainly due to the concerns about the weak global economic waves and instability of various businesses around the world. The visions to create a high-income Malaysia is rather exclusive and extravagant, due to which the ETP was announced in early 2011 where the future of many current economic efforts are quite inconclusive.

The ETP promises RM67 billions worth of investments most prominently in the oil and gas business, healthcare and data center among other related industries that require vast amount of not only monetary power but as well technologies to be continuously pumped into the country. Apart from the large number of more than 35,000 allocated jobs once the ETP is in its growing period, the absolute success of the plan is still in question. The rigidity of the plan is very astounding, but yet perhaps the total faith in the mega project is still not properly conceived by the people of Malaysia.

Many Malaysians too do not know or/and properly understand the government's aim in launching the ETP. Negative comments flow continuously towards the mover of the project, though rather finely expected, but it seems that the project still faces the problem in convincing the people of its outcomes. Best described as still in its initializing era, the ETP does not deserve quick justifications and meets its predicted verdict quicker than expected, as is supposed to be allowed to quickly initiate and meet its objective prior to the whole blue plan described by Dato' Seri Najib Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia, recently.

The effects from the project are highly beneficial in terms of economic drive and social responsibilities. With growing numbers of experts currently penetrating the rich hydrocarbon deposit blocks within the Malaysian water, the oil and gas industry is seen to hit its new transformation in terms of better hydrocarbon management and refurbishment of old offshore complexes to increase daily oil productions. In terms of deepwater technology, the valuable information transfered into this country is important, mainly supported by the amount of hydrocarbon deposits still lying up to more than 2,000 meter below water surface in certain oil blocks off Sabah shorelines.

Other than the main concerns about possible nuclear disasters, the government has made the right decision to establish a nuclear powerplant to power up the nation's electricity lines. Currently depending on mainly coal and hydroelectric motive powers, the aging plants are not sufficient to supply the growing demands of energy currently faced by the country today. The limited geographical area suitable for dams makes it difficult to build one, and further dependency on coal may introduce the country to higher expenditure due to the hiking price of coal worldwide. Nuclear disaster from failing nuclear powerplants, though possible, is heavily overrated mainly due to lack of information about just how nuclear power sources are managed, other than being a second attempt to erect a nuclear facility in this home ground of Malaysian.

Heavy development in pharmaceutical and medical sectors will soon improve the health of the people and reduce the dependencies on foreign advices on the mentioned sectors. Increment in knowledge in the sectors will further provide the local experts with information on health handling and management, hence lowering the needs to employ non-locals for health consultations. With these available knowledge and experties, average medical costs may be reduced hence makes it affordable for everyone to enjoy health benefits necessarily. This may also apply for tourism and education transformation projects too, where instead of sending local students out, Malaysia will soon be able to attract non-locals to enroll into new education centers established in this country.

Following the slow-moving agricultural sector in Malaysia, the agricultural expansion pack also included in the ETP will boost the sector forward at a recognizable rate in not only conventional cultivations but also advance techniques in mass food production to sustain the needs of Malaysians overall. With growing biotechnology industries in the country, Malaysia is looking into a total development in food cultivating culture, in line with the government aim to provide food for everyone from home-grown products hence declining the needs to import large quantities of food from other world countries. In later years, with continuous efforts and good management, this objective may be met, provided that as a tropical country located near the equator with vast amount of fertile land and continuous supply of the sun, Malaysia does not have any problem particularly in cultivating large crops for food processing.

Another good effort also enlisted in the 19 projects is to develop a high intelligent country by promoting mass investments in the education sector. As per current date, Malaysia lacks of academicians and hence highly educated experts that are valuable assets in managing a high income country. This serious problem may soon meet its solution when the people can properly choose their education options from large offers from many education centers in the country. With increasing number of postgraduates in the country, better management and education systems are highly anticipated. With sufficient highly educated professional movers, Malaysia may be able to hit the Vision 2020 with an easy pace.

However, the ETP is still in its early progression and needs to be evaluated and properly and carefully monitored to ensure better outcomes. It is important to stay optimistic for now unless there are proven links and signs that the plan may not be as successful as it is hoped for, if not extremely a failure. The heat can now be experienced with more and more ideas, opinions and actions are pumped into the ETP effort bank by daily basis, and with good management, it is not impossible that the ETP may be the largest and most successful tool to providently sustain not only the energy, social and commodity businesses but also the wellbeing of the Malaysian people entirely for years to come.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Before we proceed, I would like to state that there are so many things that I don't exactly get the ideas behind them but nevertheless happen in this world daily. For instance, how women can experience mood changes in less than a split second, why some people hum very tedious and cheerful march songs while peeing and the all-time puzzling and mind-riddling question of why exactly did the chicken cross the road? and the sort of other troubling questions that otherwise answered will always be the reason why my mind gets cracked up every now and then. So bear with me on this one because, trust me my dear readers, it will unknowingly happen again.

CAN SOMEONE JUST TELL ME WHY

So let's move on.

Imagine that you are walking into your room one midsummer morning and see your _____ (choose from the following: roommate/friend/sibling/parent/partner/soul/other human elements) sitting on your chair with both legs resting on top of your table while one hand digging the nose, one hand is inside the pants scratching the butt and doing a couple of other things too such as peeping on the girl next door hanging her undies on outdoor cloth hangers, slapping an unfortunate mosquito against the wall flat, burping and humming that one stupid song you wish you'll never have to listen to again, and worst, farting and trying to match the keynotes of that stupid song that was hummed earlier with the neverending supply of morning gas supply.

Digging for gold. Whoaa damn syiok you know.

And then you ask that person, "what are you doing?"

And the reply will usually be, "nothing."

Nothing. How exactly can that be? Clearly he (or she, depending on the gender of this case victim) was digging his nose, scratching his butt, smacking a mosquito right on and squashed it into a million pieces of smearing blood and inner guts, peeping on the girl next door, burping, humming, farting and trying to perform an orchestral performance using nothing but his wet-sounding farts. Clearly he was doing all those but nothing.

I am sure most of you have gone through the same experience.

So it occurred to me, really, that why exactly we choose to say from time to time that we were doing nothing when asked?

I was at home the whole weekend recently when he came to our house. When I went to the front door to answer his call, there stood Ah Chong with both his hands resting in between the metal gate grill. He was always in his usual: worn out short pants, faded blue t-shirt and that thing on his head that could either be a very old helmet, half a coconut shell of a cross of both.

"Halo, halo," he said while smiling and waving his hand at me. "Want to collect newspaper fee."

"Hello, Chong," I said while opening the gate for him and allowing him to enter the shaded part within the house perimeter. It was sunny outside, and it was very unkind to let him stand in the hot sun. Once in, he took off his half a coconut shell helmet and placed it on a chair we occasionally used in the evening to sit on and relax. His shorts was torn at some parts near his knees. He was about to sit down when I held his hand up and asked him to get inside the house instead.

He constantly refused to follow me into the house for sometime until he finally gave in. My dad appeared at the main door and greeted him with a handshake. He later proceeded to invite Ah Chong to sit on the sofa, from which he constantly refused to and wanted to sit on the floor instead, only to in the end gave up and sat on the sofa after my dad told him that he won't get the newspaper money unless he sits on the sofa.

My mom later came to the living hall with a large jug of chilled water, a large kettle of coffee, three empty glasses and a plate of various traditional Malay kuehs all carefully arranged on a tray. She later served them all on the thick glass coffee table. The standing fan was spinning moderately.

Ah Chong was again refusing to drink and eat anything but again gave in when my dad told him he won't get his money unless he takes something up. After all it was just coffee, water and kuehs. Ah Chong drank up his coffee and later a cup of chilled water and then another after he finished eating two pieces of bingka ubi. Clearly the man was hungry and thirsty from all the traveling he did in the hot tropical weather. He then laid his back into the sofa and said thank you to my dad, who was sitting on another sofa next to him, and to me who was sitting on the floor at the time. I preferred the cold marble tiles better.

"How's work, Chong?" My dad asked.

"Like that lah boss," Ah Chong replied. He always called everyone boss. "Morning time I sell newspapers, evening go back home and rest, tomorrow do the same thing all over again."

"You have been selling newspapers here for almost 20 years, Chong. Don't you get tired or bored?"

Ah Chong laughed for a while and in the same time patting his own hips slowly. He then looked at my father's face and then at mine.

"Okay lah," he said. "But you don't tell anyone lah, hah? This I share with you only."

My father nodded to his request and waited for him to continue.

"I have been selling newspapers for 20 years, right? In that 20 years also I met my wife, who also sold newspapers at the time in front of Giant supermarket there," Ah Chong told us as his hand went up pointing to what he thought was the direction to Giant but was completely the opposite.

"Then we got married lah. Both of us sold newspapers then. That time I only have a motorbike. That motor outside your house lah! I still use until today!" He laughed hard as if he was amused by the motorbike capability. I started to think that his half a coconut shell helmet aged almost the same as the motorbike.

"So using the money I collected from the newspaper selling, I bought her a van so that she can pick up a lot of newspapers and I can send them to the customers' house, your house."

"Then after some time, I used the money I saved to buy a roof factory in Puchong. That factory makes the clay atap lah! But I don't know how to sell the roof so I asked my nephew to help. I still sold newspapers at that time."

"Then one day of my customer asked me if I wanted to buy a supermarket. He doesn't want the supermarket anymore because he needed money, so I bought the supermarket using the money I collected from newspaper selling and the roofs also. But then again I don't know how to handle supermarket business so I employed a guy lah to take care of the business. That supermarket in Kepong area there lah."

My dad was by then in total disbelief. I was already regurgitating blood from my mouth.

"Then what else?" My dad asked Ah Chong.

"That's all lah. Where got anything else? Hahaha," replied Ah Chong.

"Come on lah Chong!"

"Okay lah. I bought some land lah back in the days using some money I saved. I keep some vegetables and fruits lah in the land. And some belut lah! Send to Hong Kong there. People there like belut so much!"

"How big lah is the land?"

"I also don't know. You ask my wife lah! I never remember also. But there got around 20 kolam lah for belut. I have to buy a small lorry lah to carry the belut to ship. The 3-ton lorry."

3-ton lorry is small?

At this point my father went speechless. All he did was to look at the guy who was in his mid fifties, in torn shorts and faded t-shirt, riding in a fossilized motorbike while wearing a half coconut shell helmet collecting newspaper money from house to house in a hot midday sun every end of month and supplying newspapers to almost all houses in the neighborhood as early as 6.00am in the morning every other day. I on the other hand was given a CPR by my mother.

"Eh okay lah! I still need to collect money from other customers. I have to move now la hah!" Ah Chong said in his loud, friendly voice. My dad handed him an RM50 note and an RM10 note without a single word, still stunned by Ah Chong's story.

"Okay ngam. Sorry ah disturb you today. Thank you for the money, tomorrow I send you newspaper again as usual. See you all ahh! Keep buying newspaper from me ah. Thank you, thank you," Ah Chong spoke to all of us while nodding and laughing, sinking his eyes all in every time he smiled. He then proceeded to the chair outside the house, wore his half a coconut shell helmet, kicked-start the motorbike and left slowly while waving his hand at us with smiles. We all stood by the gate looking at him leaving, while my mom struggling to hold me up as I was by then losing all my motor controls over the shocking experience I had with Ah Chong's tale.

Not a while after that a car passed by. We all recognized that black Mercedez Benz. It was driven by the neighborhood poser who always talked about nothing but himself. He rolled down his window and we all could see him completely in a black suit with necktie and black shades. He then greeted us, and my dad asked him what's up.

"Nothing lah uncle, quite busy lah now! Million dollar projects, too much to handle! I am now going to discuss with some Dato's over some land transactions. RM500 million, uncle! So I go first okay uncle, see you!"

He rolled up his window and left. All of us watched him left the road without a word being said.

We all know he works as a driver for a Dato' somewhere in KL, and that the car he was driving belongs to the Dato'. Everyone knows.

"Orang kita," my dad said.

p/s: I was driving the other day in Puchong and saw Ah Chong's van parked at a roadside in front of a supermarket. Then Ah Chong and his wife came out from the supermarket with a plastic bag full of oranges. He and his wife then gave some passing school kids who were at the time going to the nearby school on foot an orange each for free. He then gave a bunch of keys he found after digging deep in his torn shorts pocket to his wife. He patted his wife's back and laughed before getting into his van and left alone. His wife then left in a freaking red Ferrari.